Waste disposer with centrifugally urged impeller



United States Patent US. Cl. 241-46.08 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A waste disposer apparatus including a rotary assembly having pivotally operable impellers is disclosed. The pivotally operable impellers are centrifugally movable to an operative position at which detent means yieldingly locates and maintains the impellers for cooperation with a grinding ring to effect comminution of waste materials.

This invention relates to waste disposer apparatus and more particularly to an improved rotary impeller assembly for achieving optimum elfectiveness while preventing jamming of the waste disposer apparatus.

Prior art has shown rotary impeller assemblies having movable impellers that are maintained in an outwardly pivoted position by centrifugal force and cooperable with a stationary shredder ring for comminuting waste material. To prevent jamming of the rotary impeller assembly by bones, for example, the impellers have been made freely pivotable out of the operative position. The impellers are retained in the operative position by forces related to rotation of the impeller assembly and are easily movable out of the operative position.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved impeller assembly for a waste disposer operable for preventing jamming by bones or other objects while insuring optimum operation of the impeller assembly.

It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved impeller assembly having a freely pivotable impeller and further having detent means for yieldingly maintaining the pivoted impeller in the outwardly pivoted position for effecting comminution of waste material.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved impeller assembly for a waste disposer having a freely pivotable impeller mounted on a rotary member and operable to an outwardly pivoted position responsive to centrifugal force and further including means detentingly engageable with the impeller at the outward position for yieldingly maintaining it in the operative position.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved impeller assembly for a waste disposer that includes symmetrically constructed and disposed pivotal impellers and that further includes means for yieldingly maintaining the impellers in a detented comminuting position to effect an optimum operation in either direction of rotation.

The present invention achieves the above objectives in a waste disposer apparatus having a rotary impeller assembly pivotally mounting at least one cutter or impeller that is cooperable with a stationary grinding or shredding ring for comminuting material therebetween. The impeller assembly further includes detent means mounted on the rotor and operable into detent engagement with the impeller for yieldingly maintaining the impeller in the operative position. This detent arrangement is operable for effecting optimum comminution of the waste material by maintaining the impellers in the 3,454,240 Patented July 8, 1969 operative position while permitting movement of the impellers from the operative position responsive to a predetermined force from bones or other waste material that might cause jamming of the rotary impeller assembly.

Operation of the device and further objects and advantages thereof will become evident as the description proceeds and from an examination of the accompanying page of drawings which illustrates a preferred embodiment of the invention and in which similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views, where- FIGURE 1 is an over-all vertical view of a waste disposer apparatus shown partially in section to illustrate the instant invention;

FIGURE 2 is a bottom view of the rotary impeller assembly showing the detent means of the instant invention and further having a fragmentary portion removed to illustrate the positioning of pivotal impellers upon engagement of the detent means; and

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary view of the impeller assembly showing an alternate embodiment of the detent means.

Referring to FIGURE 1, there is shown a generally cylindrical waste disposer having an upper housing 10 defining a comminuting chamber 11 for accommodating waste material to be comminuted and including an inlet 14 at its upper end for receiving the waste material. The upper end 15 of the upper housing 10 is provided with means, indicated generally by arrow 16, for mounting or supporting the disposer apparatus in a drain opening 19 of a sink 20 or the like. The mounting means 16 includes a flanged drain sleeve 21 supported at the sink opening 19 by an upper flange 24. The mounting means 16 further includes a clamping assembly 25 supported on a lower portion of the drain sleeve 21 and including first and second ring members 29 and 30. A plurality of clamping bolts 31 are threadingly engageable with the clamping assembly 25 and extend upwardly to bear against a clamping ring 34 spaced from the sink20 by a resilient ring 35. Tightening of the clamping blots 31 tends to clamp the upper end 15 of the upper housing 10 between the first and second ring members 29, 30 and to separate the clamping ring 34 from the upper ring 29 of the clamping assembly 25 to effect a connection of the disposer to the sink 20 through the drain sleeve 21.

A lower housing 39 having a fluid outlet 40 is attached to the lower end 41 of the upper housing 10 by means of an encompassing clamp 44. The junction of the upper and lower housings 10, 39 includes means for sealing against leakage of fluids from the comminuting chamber 11 such as shown diagrammatically by the seal means 45 in FIGURE 1. Attached to the lower portion of the lower housing 39 is a motor 46 having a motor shaft 49 extending upwardly toward the comminuting chamber 11. The motor may be reversible for operating the disposer in either direction.

A substantially cylindrical shredder ring 50 is disposed within the comminuting chamber 11 and maintained in a relatively stationary position through the clamping action between said upper and lower housings 10, 39. The shredder ring 50 includes a plurality of inwardly extending shredding elements 51 disposed around the inner periphery of the shredder ring 50. Between each of the inwardly extending elements 51 is a longitudinally extending channel 54 for accommodating flow of fluid and comminuted waste material from the comminuting chamber 11 toward the outlet 40.

A rotary impeller assembly 60 is disposed within the comminuting chamber 11 and includes a rotor 61 attached to the motor shaft 49 for rotation therewith. The rotor 61 includes a central hub portion 64 keyed to the motor shaft 49 and retained thereon by a screw 63 recessed in the upper surface of the rotor. The diameter of the rotor 61 is established so that the outer periphery 65 is closely spaced from the inner peripheral surface of the inwardly extending elements 51. The rotor 61 also includes a plurality of holes 66 for accommodating flow of fluid from the comminuting chamber 11 toward the outlet 40.

The rotor 61 pivotally supports a pair of impellers 69, 70 at diametrically opposed positions. The rotor 61 is free of stops or shoulders and thus the impellers 69, 70 are freely pivotable on pivot shafts 74, 75 extending through the rotor at mounting bosses 76, 77. The impellers 69, 70 shown in FIGURE 1 are substantially identical and therefore description of one of the impellers is sufiicient to cover constructional details and operation of each of the pair. The impeller 70 includes an upper portion having a mass portion 79 and also includes an outer portion 80 that is cooperable with the inwardly extending elements 51 of shredding ring 50 for effecting a com minution of waste material therebetween. The impeller 70 is constructed symmetrically with respect to a radially extending vertical plane so that the outer portion 80 is cooperable with the inwardly extending elements 51 to effect the comminution upon operation of the motor 46 in either of its two directions of rotation.

The impeller further includes a pivot shaft 75 extending through the rotor boss 77 and retained therein by a retaining ring 81 engageable with an undercut portion 84 of the impeller pivot shaft 75.

As previously indicated, the upper surface of rotor 61 is free of stops or shoulder members engageable by the impellers 69, 70 and thus the disposer is free of the noise and banging due to movement of the impellers 69, 70 against such stops. The impellers 69, 70 are moved to the operative position under centrifugal force and are yieldingly maintained in this position by novel detent means as will be described hereinafter.

Forming a portion of the detent arrangement is a D-shaped extension 85 of the pivot shaft 75 extending downwardly from the pivotable impeller. The detent means further includes a leaf spring 86 attached to the rotor hub 64 and extending outwardly from the rotor hub 64 for engagement with the fiat portion 89 of the D-shaft 85. It may be noted that the leaf spring 86 is maintained in biased contact with the circular portion 90 of the D-shaft 85 but achieves a biased detent engagement with the flat portion 89 of the shaft 85 upon rotation of the impeller 70 to the outwardly extended operative position. The detent arrangement tends to hold the impeller 70 in the operative position during the comminuting operation. The detent also maintains the impeller 70 in the extended position at termination of rotation for preventing inertia-caused movement of the impeller to be a forward-pivoted position where jamming tends to occur upon the initiation of subsequent cycles.

The detenting force applied by the leaf spring 86 is established so that loading of the impeller 70 under normal grinding or comminuting circumstances does not move the impeller 70 out of the operative position. The detent, however, is overcome responsive to the presence of heavy overloading or dynamic overloading due to the presence of jamming material and the impeller is moved out of the operative position for etfecting release of the jamming material. Upon freeing itself of the jamming material, the impeller 70 will again move to the operative position under centrifugal force and re-establish the yieldingly detented engagement.

An alternate embodiment of the detent means as shown in FIGURE 3 includes a biased ball and socket detent wherein the rotor boss 76, for example, supports a movable detent ball 91 biased toward engagement with a recess 94 on the pivot shaft 74 when the impeller 69 is pivoted into the operative position. The amount of detent force could be varied to establish the level of jamming force necessary to pivot the impeller out of the operative position by means of an adjustable screw 95, for example.

It is therefore seen that the instant invention provides an improved impeller assembly for a waste disposer that is operable for effecting optimum comminution of waste material while eliminating the jamming of bones or other waste materials. This novel arrangement is achieved by use of a freely pivotable impeller operable into a yieldingly detented position responsive to centrifugal force but operable from that position upon encountering a condition tending to cause jamming.

In the drawings and specification, there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention and, although specific terms are employed, these are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. Changes in form and the proportion of parts as well as the substitution of equivalents are contemplated, as circumstances may suggest or render expedient, without departing from the spirit or scope of this invention as further defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A waste disposer apparatus comprising: a housing providing a comminuting chamber and having an inlet for receiving waste materials; a shredding ring positioned within said chamber and including shredding elements; a rotary impeller assembly within said chamber and including a rotor and at least one impeller movably mounted on said rotor, said impeller being responsive to centrifugal force for movement into an operative position at which said impeller is cooperable with said shredding elements for effecting comminution of said waste materials; drive means for rotating said impeller assembly to effect movement of said impeller to said operative position; and detent means engageable at a predetermined detent posi tion for yieldingly maintaining said impeller in said operative position.

2. A waste disposer as defined in claim 1 wherein said detent means includes biased engagement means for effecting a yieldable detented connection between said impeller and said rotor at said operative position and wherein said impeller is responsive to a predetermined resistance of said waste material at said operative position for moving out of said detented connection.

3. A waste disposer as defined in claim 1 wherein said detent means includes a first detent element connected to said impeller and a second detent element connected to said rotor and wherein said first and second detent elements are yieldingly engageable at said operative position.

4. A waste disposer as defined in claim 3 wherein said impeller is freely pivotable about its axis and is symmetrically constructed for bidirectional operation of said impeller assembly.

5. A waste disposer apparatus comprising: a housing providing a comminuting chamber and having an inlet for receiving waste materials; a shredding ring positioned within said chamber and including shredding elements; a rotary impeller assembly within said chamber and including a rotor and at least one impeller having a pivot pin movably mounted on said rotor, said impeller being responsive to centrifugal force for movement into an operative position at which said impeller is cooperable with said shredding elements for effecting comminution of said waste materials; drive means for rotating said impeller assembly to effect movement of said impeller to said operative position; and detent means including a first detent element formed in said pivot pin and a second detent element connected to said rotor and engageable with said first detent element in a yieldable detented engagement at said operative position.

6. A waste disposer as defined in claim 5 wherein said second detent element includes a biasing portion 5 6 for maintaining said second detent element in said yield- 2,819,847 1/ 1958 Hauser 241-46 able detented engagement. 3,353,756 11/1967 Morgenson 241-194X References Cited ANDREW R. JUHASZ, Primary Examiner. UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 F. T. YOST, Assistant Examiner. 2,631,297 3/1953 Clark et al. 24146 us. CL XIR- 2,730,308 1/1956 Jordan 241-257 241 194, 257 

